In recent years, there has been much interest in nanostructures, such as carbon nanotubes and related structures, e.g., nanofibers and nanowires, and their potential use in a wide range of applications. Some nanostructure-based products have already appeared in the market place, for example, scanning probe microscopy probes with carbon nanotube probe tips. However, wide-spread commercial use has been hampered by difficulties in integrating individual nanostructures into target micro-scale devices. One challenging aspect of such integration involves nanostructure handling. More specifically, individual nanostructures cannot yet be easily transferred to a target site. Controlling nanostructures in terms of number, shape, size and location has also proven challenging. Of course, to successfully commercialize any nanostructure product use, it is critical that the nanostructure that has been integrated in a target device retain its original properties. Preserving the nanostructure's original properties during product manufacture with existing technologies remains an issue. These problems must be addressed in order to achieve the high yield, fast rate and low cost needed for mass production of nanostructure-based devices.
Prior efforts have tended to focus on two alternative approaches: i) attaching the individual nanostructure directly to the target site; or ii) synthesizing the nanostructure on the target site. These approaches require additional tasks that not only are labor-intensive and time-consuming but subject the nanostructures to further manipulation as well. Typically, when nanostructures are grown on target sites, there is a need to remove redundant nanostructures and/or trim nanostructures to achieve a desired nanostructure length. Nanostructures that are fabricated elsewhere are usually welded (or bonded) to the target site. Consequently, product manufacturing based on existing approaches such as these is inadequate for large-scale production purposes.